An Alternate Reality Game is using the real world to create a fictional reality. The users are an active part of the game – not just passive players trying to solve a riddle. Jane McConigal is developing alternate reality games - the cutting edge of gaming.
Jane McConigal:
- I’m not here to try and make you play more games. But you should be watching people playing games. I wanna help you get into the slipstream of alternate reality gamers…
Alternate reality gaming is a very different way of thinking games. The participants take over the game and become a part of the solution. They interact with the society where the game takes place. As in the AR game GUN where old cemeteries became an important part of the game setting. Suddenly hundreds of players met at the cemeteries and used the space in new ways. They were making the space relevant.
And the games changes the participants, creating a strong network - 'a collective mind' as a player has put it.
- The game was shaping us into something new. It is very beautiful: In order for one of us to move forward we must all move forward.
Sean Stewart, working with ARG:
- We just accidentally reinvented Science as pop culture entertainment
The idea of online communities being part of a global consciousness is an interesting concept! Holism says the "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts" and I also find interesting parallels in C.G. Jung's ideas of a global gestalt consciousness.
So what we need now is more consciousness-raising sites on the internet!
Posted by: scott hill | December 01, 2006 at 15:35